Victoria’s hot seats: Monique Ryan confident in win as Josh Frydenberg refuses to concede
Tim Wilson has conceded his Goldstein seat to a Teal independent, as his Liberal colleagues’ seats remain on a knife’s edge.
Victoria
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The Liberals spent Sunday battling to hold onto key seats across Melbourne’s east, with Deakin and Menzies still too close to call.
Labor has already taken the eastern electorates of Chisholm and Higgins off the Liberals, with postal votes to determine whether Labor will clinch another two seats.
Michael Sukkar is eyeing his fourth term as Deakin MP but the seat remained on a knife-edge as of 6pm, with Labor candidate Matt Gregg leading 50.7 per cent-49.3 per cent on a two-party preferred basis. With 70 per cent of the vote counted, there was a 5.4 per cent swing against the Liberals.
Mr Gregg told Labor faithful on Sunday he believed Deakin “wanted change”.
“We’ve got to be ready for whatever outcome, but it’s very exciting,” he said.
Although many postal votes are still in transit to their final destination, the Australian Electoral Commission was able to count some postal ballots on Sunday.
Liberal MP Keith Wolahan continued to hang on in his seat of Menzies in Melbourne’s outer northeast, which has never been held by Labor.
He led Labor challenger Naomi Oakley 50.4 per cent-49.6 per cent as of 6pm, raking in 2240 postal votes to Ms Oakley’s 1661.
However, the Liberals secured the outer-east electorate of Casey on Sunday, with Aaron Violi retaining the seat for the Liberals, which was held by outgoing MP Tony Smith.
With 72 per cent of the vote counted, Mr Violi led his Liberal challenger Bill Brindle 51.5 per cent-48.5 per cent as of 6pm. He claimed victory on Saturday night, saying he was still having “pinch me” moments after learning he was likely to win.
“If I told 18-year-old Aaron that we would be standing here right now doing this, he wouldn’t believe me,” he said.
Macnamara, the final seat in Melbourne which remains too close to call, is likely to be retained by Labor MP Josh Burns despite a stern challenge by the Greens.
Ryan confident of a win
Independent member for Kooyong Dr Monique Ryan said she “was still getting used to” the idea of becoming a federal MP on Sunday afternoon.
“It hasn’t sunk in yet,” she said.
“I think that there is a momentum for change in the Australian political system.”
The incumbent member responded with an emphatic “no” when asked if she was worried the number of postal votes yet be counted could keep Treasurer Josh Frydenberg in his seat.
Mr Frydenberg on Sunday had not conceded to Dr Ryan and said he would wait until all postal votes had been counted before commenting further.
The Treasurer said it was “mathematically possible” for him to retain his seat in Kooyong but acknowledged it would be difficult after the traditionally held Liberal electorate swung toward Ms Ryan.
Dr Ryan said her first order of businesses in Canberra would be to enact action on climate change and to lobby the now majority Labor government and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to return the Biloela family to their central Queensland home.
Speaking in front of a crowd of volunteers and supporters, Dr Ryan said her grassroots campaign, that championed definitive climate change action, helped secure her win in the long-held Liberal seat amid the Liberal Party’s wavering emissions targets.
Dr Ryan’s climate policy has advocated for reducing emissions by 60% by 2030 and increased use of electric vehicles.
“Climate was the single biggest issue for us and he (Mr Frydenberg) and his government hasn’t provided us with any vision for how they were going to act on it,” she said.
“He didn’t engage with and he didn’t talk about climate change in this electorate.
“His campaign was based on calling me names, on slogans on attack ads, and there was no vision there was no vision for what was going to happen with our economy.”
As of Sunday afternoon, no representatives from either major party mad made contact with Dr Ryan.
She said a “woman problem” had also plagued the Coalition throughout their decade long term and led to their election defeat.
“He (Mr Frydenberg) didn’t talk about gender equity in this electorate.
“We have seen time and time again now the Morrison government treated people like Brittany Higgins, Grace Tame and Rochelle Miller.
“There’s still a significant gender pay gap, and there’s inequities and superannuation.
“We have a government now that is hopefully going to listen to what the people of Australia want.”
Wilson concedes Goldstein to teal independent
A tearful Tim Wilson has conceded the seat of Goldstein, after the one-safe Liberal seat was won by the independent Zoe Daniels.
He struggled to hold back tears as he stood with his husband Ryan, thanking him for his support and noting that when he first entered parliament they weren’t allowed to marry.
He said it was too early to think about the future and whether he would recontest the seat, but said he was a “fighter”.
“While the final result for the election for the federal electorate of Goldstein is not yet known, I am able to report that based on the first batch of postal votes that it seems increasingly unlikely that I will be in a position to be re-elected,” he said.
“I’m a fighter, I always have been,” he said.
For now he said he would focus on having some downtime, and was spotted visiting a Gelati van with his husband after the press conference ended.
“And so, I’m just looking forward to taking some downtime, resting and looking to the future,” he said.
“So to save everyone the energy or nerves I am formally conceding defeat as the member for Goldstein and acknowledge the victory of my opponent and congratulate them on their success.”
He said he was humbled to have represented the people of Goldstein and thanked them for the privilege.
He said he was disappointed he couldn’t continue to work to develop Australia’s clean industrial future.
“But you never know what might come on later in the day,” he said.
“Nobody’s going to pretend you’re not shattered with results like this.”
He said “too much of the conversation about liberalism has been focused on other agendas or fringe agendas sometimes for my liking” but would not say whether the result reflected a rejection of a Liberal party drifting further right.
“As the candidate whose name is on the ballot you always have to take responsibility for a loss,” he said.
“But I also acknowledge that it wasn’t as though it was just existing just in our community.
“The trends that existed here existed in Higgins, existed in Kooyong, Wentworth, Mackeller and North Sydney so it is what it is.”
He said it was a “deeply unsettling time” for the country and that while there was clearly a change in Prime Minister, he cautioned against hasty analysis on why the Liberals lost, and whether they had moved too far from the centre for seats such as Goldstein to support.
“It’s a reset for the country after two years of incredible disruption,” he said.
“I think . . . there’s a lot of need to feel like we have a flush out of the system.
“I think drawing big conclusions out of the election this early . . . is unwise.”
He warned newly-elected MPs that they would soon discover the toll the job can have on both a person and their family.
“The thing about public life is it takes an incredible amount of energy out of you,” he said.
“As some people are about to discover, it isn’t just about turning up occasionally.
You really have to give every part of your being, your energy, your mental energy day in and day out.”
He said while it was important for him to have humility, given the swing against him, it was also important for “others”.
“To be frank I’ve obviously won the primary vote but obviously not after preferences,” he said.
“It’s not as though anybody else got an outright majority and anyone who has the privilege and responsibility needs to bring the community together and focus on how to take its values to the nation.”
Factors that played into Coalition loss
Mr Frydenberg said there were “lots of factors” that played into the Coalition’s election loss on Saturday but its stance on climate change had a part to play in losing Kooyong to independent Dr Monique Ryan.
“We as a Coalition need to be better at articulating what we have achieved and what we are doing in respect to climate change, because when I have those conversations with people here and across Australia, for many, those facts are not fully known as they should be,” he said.
“We need to do our part but it is very much a global challenge. But as for the issue here in Kooyong, it was very high on people’s agendas.
“There’s always lots of factors in political results, and this is no different to other elections in that regard.
“There was no playbook for the pandemic. Not everything went right and not everything could go right.”
He said his next steps after losing the long-held Liberal seat were unclear but his family remained his highest priority.
“In the hours after the election, I would just take some time to reflect on my future plans. But first and foremost, it’s about spending more time with the kids and with my wife,” he said.
“That is my first, second and third priority.
“I’ve got fire in my belly and plenty of time to do other things.”
“I’m extremely proud of what I’ve been able to achieve as the member for both locally and also serving as the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, as the Treasurer and most recently for outbreaks.”
Mr Frydenberg did not confirm whether he would remain in politics or pursue a corporate role if or when he is defeated.
Frydenberg yet to call Ryan
Teal independent Dr Ryan said she had not yet received a call from Mr Frydenberg to concede the seat as of 8.30am on Sunday.
Mr Frydenberg is expected to lose his seat as Labor and independent candidates delivered a hammer blow to the Coalition’s election chances in Victoria.
“Well, I’m feeling great. We aren’t calling it a win just yet, because I haven’t received a call from Mr Frydenberg at all just yet, so I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but it does feel like the climate has changed in Kooyong,” she told ABC Breakfast on Sunday.
“I’m hoping that things will continue on as they have along the same sort of trend, that we will end up with a 53-54 per cent. two-party preferred position.”
She quoted the Hunters and Collectors song, Holy Grail.
“Woke up this morning from the strangest dream. I was in the biggest (teal) army that the world has ever seen. We were marching for … so many things. And now it begins.”
The Treasurer, touted as a future leader of the Liberals, was behind independent challenger Dr Monique Ryan 53-47 on a two-party preferred basis at 10pm on Saturday.
The loss of a seat once held by Robert Menzies was set to be a catastrophe for the party.
Dr Ryan said she thought the rise of the independents would become permanent in elections.
“I think that this is going to be a permanent sort of a change, not just a protest against one thing, it’s a statement of position and what the electorate of Kooyong wants from its elected representative from now on,” she said.
Dr Ryan earlier told the Nine Network she was “excited to have the opportunity to make things better in Canberra for the people of Kooyong and the people of Australia”.
When asked by Nine how she felt to be the first woman to represent Kooyong, Dr Ryan said having more women in parliament would “improve the tenor of discussion”.
“I’ve been saying to people throughout this campaign I wouldn’t let my 21-year-old daughter work in Parliament House because I wouldn’t be able to feel secure she was safe there.
“I think that having more women there and more women who are not career politicians, who have life experience in other important sectors like health will improve the tenor of political discussion, hopefully, in this country.
“And that will bring a degree of pragmatism and less partisanship that will improve the political conversation for the nation.”
Mr Frydenberg grew emotional on Saturday night as he reflected on his time in parliament and said he was proud to have introduced the JobKeeper program to keep people employed during Covid-19.
“People have never voted for just Josh Frydenberg. They’ve always voted for the Liberal Party’s candidate in Kooyong,” he told the room.
“It’s the Liberal Party’s values that have driven us for more than 70 years and made us the most successful party in Australia.”
Mr Frydenberg’s speech was peppered with bouts of applause and cheers from the crowd that included one man shouting “You’re a bloody good captain, Josh” and another person yelling “You’ll be back”.
Coalition campaign spokesman Simon Birmingham said the big swings away from the two major parties was “creating a lot of confusion in the results”, as he conceded the Coalition faced a “difficult pathway” to majority government.
“Clearly, it’s not showing as a classic change election,” he said.
A senior Labor source said: “You’d rather be us than them.”
Crowd erupts as Labor claims Higgins
Labor’s first MP to win the seat of Higgins Dr Ananda-Rajah has declared there was “no such thing as a safe seat anymore”.
Speaking to the Herald Sun after her victory speech, she said it was “a historic day for our nation”.
“It’s overwhelming,” she said.
“We worked very hard, we ran a good campaign locally.”
She said she didn’t expect to win and seize a seat that has been held by the Liberals for more than 70 years.
“I am surprised,” she said.
“We worked so hard.
“I didn’t have anything left to give.”
She said she wouldn’t take her win for granted and we must understand there were no safe seats anymore.
“We are there at the behest of the people,” she said.
“We must work to satisfy their wishes.
“That is the most important thing.”
The mood at the joint campaign event for Dr Ananda-Rajah and the Macnamara candidate Josh Burns was jubilant.
The packed crowd applauded every time a positive Labor result flashed up on the screen.
Dr Ananda-Rajah supporters said they were “rapt” with the results — with the Labor candidate leading the count for the once-safe Liberal seat.
Dr Ananda-Rajah’s field organiser Tara Cunneen admitted she didn’t think they could win the blue riband street.
She said she couldn’t believe it.
“She (Dr Ananda-Rajah) was doing six hours of doorknocking and four hours of phone calls every day,” she said.
A packed crowd erupted into cheers when Dr Ananda-Rajah entered the room at the candidate event, breaking out into chants of “Michelle”.
Mr Burns introduced her to the room as Higgins’ first ever Labor MP, sparking loud applause.
The former The Alfred doctor paid tribute to her Liberal opponent Katie Allen and said it is difficult to leave a career as all consuming as medicine for public office.
She declared to the jubilant crowd — some of whom were crying, others FaceTiming her speech to supporters who couldn’t be there — that she was ready to be an MP.
Kim Jong-un chaos at polling booth
A Kim Jong-un impersonator angered voters at St Peter’s Anglican Church Hall in Box Hill after alleging Gladys Liu was a “communist candidate”.
The impersonator yelled offensive comments over a microphone claiming a failure to vote for the Liberal MP would send families to a concentration camp.
In the footage posted to social media, a voter approached the impersonator and told him to “f--k off” seven times.
“You’re not supposed to agitate the day of an election, it’s forbidden,” another voter said.
“It’s against the law.”
A volunteer then tried to steal the impersonator’s PA system before the impersonator grabbed the man’s neck.
“I have a theory: people who don’t get parody are people who lack critical thinking,” the impersonator said on social media.
“Just because you lack critical thinking doesn’t mean you go and break the law.”
The impersonator, also known as Howard X, has been imitating Kim Jong-un for more than nine years.
His recent controversies include gatecrashing a campaign event by Scott Morrison in Mount Waverley on May 13.
He was confronted by police and forced to leave after again claiming that Gladys Liu was a communist candidate.
Legal challenge over ‘deceptive’ signs
The Federal Court ordered the removal of “deceptive” anti-Labor corflutes – displayed in key Victorian seats including Higgins – after a Labor Party challenge.
The Labor Party alleges the green-coloured signs were orchestrated by the Victorian Liberals.
The Victorian Liberals have denied this and confirmed the signs were not authorised by them.
The green-coloured signs read “put Labor last for our future” and appeared to use the same colour, or a similar shade, used by the Greens campaign.
Critics argue the signs were intended to trick Green voters into believing the party wants voters to preference Labor last.
They were authorised by Henrick Fourey on behalf of the Business Owners and Contractors Union.
The Australian Greens posted on social media on Friday night to confirm the signs did not belong to them – labelling them as “desperate tricks” – and said they had been reported to the Australian Election Commission and the police.
The Australian Election Commission responded to the tweet, posting that they were aware “there is an injunction being sought regarding this signage” and were in “in discussion with AGS about joining it”.
A Victorian Labor spokesman said “in a co-ordinated effort last night and this morning the Victorian Liberals put misleading and deceptive material on booths across Victoria”.
“They hid behind a dodgy authorisation because they knew it was wrong,” he said.
“Thankfully, the Federal Court granted Labor an injunction, authorising the removal of this material by the Australian Election Commission.
“We urged the AEC to remove the deceptive and misleading materials from polling booths immediately.
“Tactics like these are what we’ve come to expect from the tired and desperate Liberal Party but Victorians deserve better than this.”
The seat of Higgins was won by Liberal MP Katie Allen at the last election with a margin of 3.7 per cent.
But changes to the seat’s boundaries brought this margin down to 2.6 per cent and it was shaping up to a hotly contested battle, with Labor’s Michelle Ananda-Rajah and the Greens’ Sonya Semmens.
Dr Ananda-Rajah hadn’t seen the signs herself at the polling booths she visited but said she was aware of them.
She said she didn’t believe the Liberals’ denials about their involvement and the signs represented why an independent anti-corruption commission was needed.
“It’s presumably by the Liberal Party because it can’t really be by anyone else,” she said.
“This stunt is really symbolic of everything that is wrong with the Liberal Party.
“It is an integrity free zone and is all the more the reason why we need to restore integrity into Australian political life at the federal level.
“This sort of behaviour needs to be stamped out from the very beginning otherwise it grows like a cancer on the nation and erodes our democracy.”
Speaking after a day of campaigning at Malvern East’s Lloyd St School, Dr Ananda-Rajah said there was a “really warm reception”.
“It’s usually a Liberal stronghold but it’s been very, very positive,” she said.
“I can’t read too much into it, it’s only one booth out of many but let’s see what happens.”
She said the tight battle facing candidates in traditional blue riband seats reflected a sense of “abandonment” in inner-city Liberal seats.
“They don’t feel that they represent them,” she said.
“I feel that these seats have, over time, become more progressive and they’re not getting what they want out of this government.”
Liberal MP Katie Allen denied any involvement with “misleading” anti-Labor signs, which were spotted in the Higgins electorate.
The Higgins candidate visited Toorak Primary School in the afternoon and told the Herald Sun she hadn’t seen the signs.
“There’s 40 booths and I’m not responsible for booth wrapping in my team,” she said.
“I haven’t seen them in any booths so far.”
When asked if she was confident of a win, the incumbent MP said she would “never count my chickens before they hatched but it’s been a good, strong campaign”.
“I’ve actually almost been in tears by how nice people have been about what I’ve done for the local community,” she said.
“It just was lovely to have that warmth, but we’ll see what happens.”
She said she had a warm reception at polling booths in Carnegie, Ashburton and Murrumbeena, as well as at Lauriston Girls School in Armadale North.
“(Lauriston) is a blue box no doubt about it,” she said.
“But we’ve been around to a few different seats.
“It’s been good.”
Greens volunteers at the primary school said they were aware of the news but hadn’t seen any of the signs at this particular polling booth.
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Originally published as Victoria’s hot seats: Monique Ryan confident in win as Josh Frydenberg refuses to concede
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